India win by 43 runs and take the lead by 1-0 in this 3 match T20i series against Sri Lank
Sri Lanka won the toss and opt to bowl first, which was good decision I guess but they didn't got the result they wanted and fall short while chasing a monstrous target of 214. Sri Lanka started of very well with an opening stand of 84 runs. Pathum Nissanka scored 79 runs of 48 balls with a strike rate of 164.58 and Kusal Mendis 45 runs 27 with 166.67. But the Sri Lankan team batting lineup collapsed after the wicket of Nissanka. The most interesting moment in the match was, Kamindu Mendis bowling left arm spin to Surya and right arm spin to Pant.
Now let us dive deep and look into some insights of the game and were India fell short.
Indian openers:
India started their batting with a good scoring rate, they scored 74 runs in the powerplay with the loss of 1 wicket i.e Shubhman gill. Both the openers were attacking with more than 200 strike rate bashing the Sri Lankan bowlers. The openers were successful in scoring 14 boundaries in the powerplay, which also hints that the new era of T20 cricket has already started. Jaiswal scored a well made 40 of just 21 balls he played with a strike rate of 190.48. In my last blog covering India vs Sri Lanka tour I said that Gill as a opener in T20i is not so great plan, but he played exceptionally well. I still feel he needs to give this type of performance to fix his spot in the T20i, the reason is simple you have Abhishek Sharma and Ruturaj waiting for the opportunity. Hoping Gill to play the way he played yesterday.
Suryakumar Yadav:
With the bat SKY was just amazing yesterday. He was awarded the man of the match for his knock of 58 of just 26 balls at a strike rate of 223.08. He was playing his own game without any captaincy pressure. As a captain he didn't panic when Sri Lanka were on the front seat, instead he stayed calm under pressure and backed his bowlers. He gave the 9th over to Arshdeep and he got a wicket of Kusal Mendis. Arshdeep trapped Mendis by bowling him hard length and got caught out at deep mid wicket. Overall a good match for Suryakumar Yadav.
Axar Patel:
Axar is our main man especially when you don't have Bumrah in your team. He almost delivers whenever the team wants him to. Axar got the crucial wicket of Nissanka in the 15th over which eventually changed the momentum of the match. Nissanka would have won the match for Sri Lanka almost single handedly. Axar also got Kusal Perera in the same over. He ended his spell with a figure of 4 overs 38 runs and 2 wickets with 9.50 economy. It's not his best performance, he has been way better with the bowl in many matches but according to the situation yesterday he was very good.
What went wrong for India?
Although, India won but that wasn't the dominant performance, there are some things were as a team they need to improve. By understanding the negative part in the team it will help and give chance to improve in the future.
Fielding:
Both the team's fielding was not so good yesterday, gave too many overthrows, dropped catches and also misfields. Yes, fielding was a concern but I am not too scared about it because of Dilip sir. He is still with the team as a fielding coach and during the match he was noting down misfields of the players on paper. That's what we as fans expect from the coaches to bring about constant improvement in the team. There's no doubt that the fielding will not be the concern in the 2nd T20i which is scheduled today. The most surprising part was even Ravi bishnoi (He is a gun fielder) dropped 2 catches, not an easy catch but we expect better from a fielder like him.
Bowling:
Indian bowling was not that bad, it was kind of average bowling from the team. Siraj and Arshdeep bowled well, Axar was excellent but Hardik and Bishnoi were not quite up to the mark. Surprisingly, Riyan Parag got 3 wickets that to in the death over. That was something I wasn't expecting at all but what he did was he just bowl very slow which was demand of the pitch. He was actually turning the ball cause he was bowling too slow. Whereas, Bishnoi was bowling at a pace around 100 kmph which becomes easy for a batter to score and most of his balls were googly, the batters were ready for that delivery almost everytime. Bishnoi's has a good record in T20i's but he isn't consistent and the reason is similar which I said, he doesn't change his bowling according to the situation and pitch he bowls the same in every condition. He needs to be more adaptable to be successful at international level.
Rishabh Pant:
Probably, many of you will disagree with me but if Pant is not able to accelerate in the middle overs then what's the point of him playing at 4? This a quite controversial but I personally don't like players like Pant, Head, Brook, etc. Yeah, I know they are x-factor players who can change the match for the team from any situation but can you trust them like you trust some other orthodox players? That's not a way you play cricket, you are just throwing the bat and nothing else. What's the difference between tennis cricket and professional cricket? There needs to be some difference in the quality of cricket. I completely understand he has won us many matches but we want someone who can accelerate and also play sensible cricket whenever needed. I am not biased towards any cricketer, I will support him or any other cricketer who plays cricket sensibly only and not just hitting the ball with closed eyes.
Today we will face Sri Lanka in the 2nd T20i and I expect a better bowling performance from Indian team. India will probably seal the series today by winning the match. Not expecting much changes in the team but they will try to fit in Washington Sundar somewhere. Maybe Riyan will make place for him. Wanted to see Sanju playing but I don't think he is getting a place in the team.
That was it from me, comment your thoughts on Rishabh Pant and his batting style. I would love to have a constructive arguments with you guys. Do show some support by following, I am trying my best to be consistent enough.
Thank You
Advait Kadam
(Sports Management student)
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